I do believe that most modern browsers possess accessibility settings that will allow the reader to override the site's design settings and apply their own stylesheet. And good modern web design does emphasise the separation of structure and semantics (HTML), visual design (CSS) and client side interactivity (Javascript, jquery etc). ...

The "coding for mobiles" issue is relatively new by comparison. ... Using these techniques it is quite easy to detect screen resolution and serve a different style sheet to different devices. It's straightforward enough to implement, very reliable and only requires a minor shift in thinking: design your default site for small mobiles and enhance the experience for devices with higher res screens (rather than what a lot of people have traditionally done, design primarily for the desktop with mobile support an add-on).

Dave, I mostly agree with what you say, and indeed have been advocating for a while a "mobile first" web design approach. (For a start, ditch the mouse-overs!)

But currently many websites seem afflicted by the desire of professional designers to impose a visual layout, too often tested only on desktop browsers, with methods like specifying fixed pixel widths for text areas. So I was pining for the very early days of web browsers, way before Internet Explorer 6 and even before frames, when resizing to a narrower window or reducing the PPI setting to accommodate poor eyes would reliably reflow text to fit the window, rather than keeping the same line breaks and thus forcing one into horizontal scrolling, as happens for examples with the article http://www.luminous-landscape.com/reviews/cameras/hasselblad_h5d_60_review.shtml that the OP mentioned.

But before I annoy Michael any more, I will note again that us readers can get around this without a lot of effort, and my main advice is "learn your browser", like the Reader mode of Safari or the browser add-ons from Readability.

Oh Jeremy! That brings back fond memories of an interview I had for my first job as a college math teacher. The Math department chairman brought me in to see the University president, who asked me what I heard later was his stock question for mathematicians: "They tell me, young man, that nowadays some people say that 2 plus 2 can equals 5. What do you say about that?"

I don't remember what answer I came up with, but it wasn't as pithy as yours.

Finally, the President turned to the Chairman and said, "If you want him, you can have him."

A good site design doesn't need a user to press Reader. Do most users even know about it?

A good side design codes the content semantically and uses style sheets to deliver appropriate user experiences to the device the user chooses to browse on.

And of course the only reason I complain is that I have been a passionate reader/subscriber/customer for many many years as a lot of the users have been. I say this cos I care and I says this because the better the site, the better the business, the more LL makes and the more content we get.

A good site design doesn't need a user to press Reader. Do most users even know about it?

A good side design codes the content semantically and uses style sheets to deliver appropriate user experiences to the device the user chooses to browse on.

And of course the only reason I complain is that I have been a passionate reader/subscriber/customer for many many years as a lot of the users have been. I say this cos I care and I says this because the better the site, the better the business, the more LL makes and the more content we get.

Truly a virtuous circle

Or just a daisy chain.

FWIW, I think it's something quite desperate that people find so little time in their lives that they are obliged to enter LuLa via their telephone. I am sometimes obliged to use my smarty-pants 'phone in order to let someone see my website, if only because I absolutely refuse to buy one of those 'tablet' things, thus encumbering my life with even more rubbish, more stuff to carry with me or risk leaving at an unattended table when I find myself in a bar or restaurant and feel the need to visit the restroom.

I like my website, enjoy playing with it and abhor the way the images look when reduced to such tiny proportions - can't even read the captions, for heaven's sake, and hate the concept of sticky fingers making stretchies or pinchies on the surface of the machine!

Why not accept that there is a time and a place for most activities, and that reading LuLa at work isn't one of them? Were I the employer, I'd feel a strong urge to fire anyone caught doing that on my time; of course, there's probably some socialist law preventing such a reaction - well, at least making it illegal.

And nobody has to live like that: simply refuse to be forced into such frantic ways; the tension will have you killing yourself before your time.

Relax, breathe deeply and save up the LuLa experience for when you are comfortably ensconced at home, gentle, soporific drink in one hand and dictionary at the other. You'll have a great night's sleep and feel much better in the morning.

FWIW, I think it's something quite desperate that people find so little time in their lives that they are obliged to enter LuLa via their telephone. I am sometimes obliged to use my smarty-pants 'phone in order to let someone see my website, if only because I absolutely refuse to buy one of those 'tablet' things, thus encumbering my life with even more rubbish, more stuff to carry with me or risk leaving at an unattended table when I find myself in a bar or restaurant and feel the need to visit the restroom.

I like my website, enjoy playing with it and abhor the way the images look when reduced to such tiny proportions - can't even read the captions, for heaven's sake, and hate the concept of sticky fingers making stretchies or pinchies on the surface of the machine!

Why not accept that there is a time and a place for most activities, and that reading LuLa at work isn't one of them? Were I the employer, I'd feel a strong urge to fire anyone caught doing that on my time; of course, there's probably some socialist law preventing such a reaction - well, at least making it illegal.

And nobody has to live like that: simply refuse to be forced into such frantic ways; the tension will have you killing yourself before your time.

Relax, breathe deeply and save up the LuLa experience for when you are comfortably ensconced at home, gentle, soporific drink in one hand and dictionary at the other. You'll have a great night's sleep and feel much better in the morning.

Rob C

I find this insulting and patronising.I happen to read tech articles on the train to and from work as it is convenient for me. It is not really for anyone to dictate how, where or on what a user reads a website. And just because you happen to not like or use a mobile phone to tablet in doesn't preclude others from doing so.You are welcome to bury your head in the sand about the way people access websites, but is this the place for such prejudices?

Jeremy,To be taken in the same spirit in which it was written - namely good natured frivolity …

Part IA fallacy is not the same as an argument. The proof that 2+2=4, in it's simplest form, goes something along the lines of 4=3+1=(2+1)+1=2+(1+1)=2+2.

Part IIAs defined by the OED,

An abbreviation is a shortened form of a word or phrase, usually characterised by a period (full stop) after the abbreviated word - (P.S. , Q.E.D., Jan.)

An acronym is a word formed from the initial letters or groups of letters of the words in a name or phrase - (SONAR, RADAR, GNU, LAME, JPEG, RAID) - and further complicated by various sub-types such as multi-layered, recursive, contrived, nested etc.

--An initialism refers to an abbreviation formed from, and used as a string of initials. Although the term acronym is widely used to refer to any abbreviation formed from initial letters, some dictionaries define acronym to mean "a word" in its original sense, while some others include additional senses attributing to acronym the same meaning as that of initialism. The distinction, when made, hinges on whether the abbreviation is pronounced as a word, or as a string of letters. In such cases, examples found in dictionaries include NATO , SCUBA and RADAR for acronyms, and FBI and HTML for initialisms

Such constructions, however—regardless of how they are pronounced—if formed from initials, may be identified as initialisms. The spelled-out form of an acronym or initialism is called its expansion.

Acronymy is a linguistic process that has existed throughout history but for which there was little to no naming or systematic analysis until relatively recent times. By way of example, the official name for the Roman Empire, and the Republic before it, was SPQR (Senatus Populusque Romanus). –

So I put it to you that TMI, as NEI (Not Enough Information - pronounced 'nay') are both ARGUABLY acronyms. Which brings us back to Chris Feldhaims' original post and the SUTOTA (suitability-to-task) of LuLa as both a sleeping aid and a laxative …